FoxTrot Classics by Bill Amend for January 29, 2013

I now feel so old.

@The Life I Draw Upon, uh-huh, me too.

Let’s not forget Pong, one of the first arcade games to generate a home edition.

Yes, I clearly remember pong game in the fast food restaurant, back in 1971 or 1972. It was the table top style, and the opponents sat on each end to turn the knobs. Those ‘Booop’ sounds got annoying. I remember years later all the kids lined up to play ‘Space Invaders,’ later ‘Galaxian,’ then ‘Pac Man.’ And those electronic pinball machines were an impressive change from the bells and numbered wheels that turned. Okay enough rambling from another ‘old’ person …

It all started with “Pong”, Imagine a kid today paying to play that!

Back when video games were innocent…

You want to feel old, . . . More than half the country has never seen a rotary dial telephone!

Ah, the good old days, when video games were fun and not nauseatingly violent!

Play this while reading this strip:http://www.amazon.com/Space-Invader-Album-Version/dp/B001BG0U2K

I would play a pinball machine with mechanical counters in a minute. Those were real arcade games!

One of my first visits to an arcade, had the usual Centipede, Asteroids, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, etc….then I found Battlezone, where the action was 360 degrees AROUND you, not just on a 2-dimensional screen. I think it was the first game to put you in the MIDDLE of the playing field. You couldn’t tear me away from it.

Space Invaders: the human has limited resources which he must use wisely. The computer has infinite resources which it uses stupidly.

Sort of reminds me of dealing with a government agency.

The very first video game was designed by Willy Higginbotham at the Brookhaven National Laboratory while he was designing atomic bombs. The game was an early version of Pong called “Tennis for Two.” It was played on an oscilloscope. How old do you all feel now?

p.s. the REALLY old factor is that the chart is already 2 years old……

My childhood friend and I would ride BART (SF Subway) to the Powel Street Station and play Pong on a console in the middle of the train platform. In those days, you could ride the system all day for a dollar if you entered and exited through at the same station.

Think they have Pong?

The Moon Landing game was my first experience with a “computer” and a video game. My sister’s boyfriend worked with computers and brought one to our house to see it. It was comprised of a 5 or 6 inch monochrome monitor, a black box, a tiny keyboard and a cassette tape player. The software for the game was on a audio cassette which took about 30 minutes to load into the black box. I seem to recall playing that game all afternoon and usually ended up each game with a crater being named after me. What a hoot.

Lunar Lander. Another one of my favorites.

Ah, the classics.

I love arcades!